Over one in 10 Europeans see US as military threat: poll

DPA Paris, March 28 (DPA) Well over one out of every 10 people in five major European nations see the US as a potential military threat to their country, according to a poll made public Friday. According to the poll, which was carried out by Harris Interactive for France 24 television and the Paris-based daily The International Herald Tribune, 14 percent of respondents in Britain and Germany said the US could be a threat.

The figure was 13 percent in Spain, 11 percent in France and 10 percent in Italy.

Most respondents in all countries except Spain said Iran represented the biggest military threat to their country, with the highest figure in the US (53 percent), followed by France (45 percent) and Britain (42 percent).

A slight majority of Spaniards (30 to 29 percent) said Iraq was a bigger threat than Iran.

In addition, nearly one of three respondents in the US and Britain said they viewed Russia as a military threat. The number was lower in other countries, such as Germany (24 percent) and France (20 percent).

Most people contacted by the poll said they wanted NATO to be maintained, with the highest figure in Germany (67 percent) and the lowest in Spain (51 percent).

Finally, a large majority of Europeans in the poll said they were against American plans to place anti-missile defence systems in Eastern European countries, such as Poland and the Czech Republic.

The Germans were most hostile to the idea (71 percent against), followed by the Spaniards (61 percent) and the French (58 percent). The poll contacted nearly 6,500 adults from Feb 27 to March 6. DPA